Elite Elisa!

With big sister Selina taking a year off to have a baby, Elisa Gasparin really stepped up for Switzerland and enjoyed her best season so far in 2014/15. The 23-year-old got some of her top results on the World Cup as well as impressing at the World Championships in Kontiolahti.

Elisa was born on the 2nd of December 1991 in Samedan. She is the younger sister of Olympic silver medallist and World Cup winner Selina, and the older sister of Aita. In fact the sisters made history together back in 2012 at the Hochfilzen World Cup by becoming the first three siblings to take part in a Relay together.

Elisa first showed us her potential back in Sochi at the Winter Olympics in 2014 where she finished an excellent 8th in the Sprint race. She even finished ahead of her older sister in the race as Selina was 13th. That was her only TOP 10 finish to date but a great confidence boost for her.

Last season was very impressive from the young Swiss biathlete. She achieved her personal best result of 11th on the World Cup in the Sprint in Khanty Mansiysk. This, added to another seven Top 20 finishes meant that she ended the season in 23rd place in the Total Score. A remarkable improvement of 31 places from the year before.

She also had a good World Championships in Kontiolahti. She finished every race in the Top 25 coming 25th in the Mass Start, 22nd in the Individual, 13th in the Sprint and 15th in the Pursuit. Most of her good results from last season came in the Sprint races which suggests that she prefers the shorter distance and racing against the clock.

This season she will be looking forward to the return of Selina and being able to race in Relays with both her sisters once again. If she continues her good form we might see some improved results from both the Swiss Women’s and Mixed Relay teams. Her main goal for this season must be to break into the Top 10 on the World Cup and put together a string of consistent results in the TOP 20. She is capable of doing this and in the Sprint especially she could even be pushing for a place on the podium.

It must be nice for Elisa to have both her sisters racing with her and travelling together in periods away from home. The three Gasparins have also done some great things to help develop biathlon in Switerland. They have built two shooting targets near their childhood home and also established three more ranges around Switzerland.

Elisa will be excited for the start of the new season to see how much she has progressed over the summer. She is still young and has plenty of time to improve but this season is a good opportunity to take a step forward and try and make Top 10 finishes her regular result. It won’t be easy but she has more experience now and has a good chance of doing it. It won’t be too long before Elisa joins the elite!
Elisa has her own website: http://www.gasparin.ch/
You can like her Facebook Page : Elisa Gasparin (Community Page)